THEATERS

   The Liberty Theater  was opened by P.C. Crow in 1918.  It seated 310 people and was housed in the Hampton Building (Bibby’s for the baby boomers).  M.D. Stewart purchased the theater in December 1920.  Stewart was an accomplished pianist and organist who accompanied the action on the screen.  He added a pipe organ in August 1924.   Initially, the screen was located on the street end of the building because of a state law requiring that the egress be onto a street and away from the projectors and the highly inflammable film.  Patrons would enter the theater under the screen and proceed up the isle.  In July 1927, the theater installed a Mirror Silver Sheet Screen which greatly improved the picture.  In early 1929, Stewart  sold the theater to E.F. Keith of Gorman.  In June 1929 the theater was upgraded for sound and the organ removed and stored and the theater operated as the New Liberty.  Talkies came to De Leon on July 15, 1929 when The Valiant starring Paul Muni was shown.   Mr. Stewart reacquired the theater probably in 1930 as the depression took hold and continued to operate it until 1945.  He again remodeled the theater in 1939 reversing the screen to the rear of the theater.  When it reopened on September 29,  the name had been changed to the Texas Theater. The Texas was acquired in 1950 by Leonard Scales.  Before it closed in the early 1950’s, it showed only cowboy flicks.

   The Leon Theater was opened in March 1947 by Atlas Parsons and a H.L. Millington the local Dodge and Plymouth dealer adjacent to W.H. Smith Dry Goods in the building that for years had housed the Blue Roof Cafe (later called the Onyx Cafe) and it quickly overtook the less modern Texas.  The theater seated 475 people.  On the left, Roy Rogers and a comedy were the attractions.  In the center, Daddy Long Legs was being shown in a remodeled Leon during the 1955 Peach and Melon Festival.  Right:  The Leon lit up at night.  If you look carefully you can see the masks of comedy and tragedy above the lighted LEON letters.  They were added during the remodeling. 

    In 1950, both the Leon and the Texas theaters were purchased by Leonard Scales.   He then opened the Weeping Oak Drive In Theater on March 1, 1951 with a fireworks show and movie for the 200 cars that filled the drive-in beyond its 150 car capacity.  The Texas Theater was closed not long after the drive-in was opened.  The theaters were purchased by Edgar Brinson in the mid 50s and the Leon and the Weeping Oak screens were widened to show CinemaScope presentations.  Broken Lance was the first CinemaScope movie shown at the Leon on January 27, 1955.  Bingo was a popular game played weekly at the Leon while you could win a free carload pass to the Weeping Oak if your ticket was posted as the winning number.   By the early 1960s, the Leon had closed.  It reopened briefly in 1963 to see it could make a new go of it but closed only six weeks later.  The Weeping Oak lingered until a windstorm took down most of the screen in the mid 1980s.  The projection booth of the Weeping Oak is still standing south of town.  Night Leon photo:  C.A. Brinson

Above:  Three Leon movie schedules from April and August of 1949 and September 1951.  Note the Texas Theater schedule on the two 1949 schedules.  The Texas had closed by September 1951.

  by today’s standards it is amazing how many big name stars would appear in various movies during a single month.  The stars appearing in the movies at the Leon in august 1949 included future president Ronald Reagan in The Girl From Jones Beach, as well as Eddie Bracken, Virginia Mayo, William Holden, Lee J. Cobb, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Loretta Young, Van Johnson, Joel McCray, James Stewart, Ava Gardner, Robert Taylor, Yvonne De Carlo, Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, John Wayne, Montgomery Clift, Roy Rogers and Trigger, John Ireland, June Allyson, Peter Lawford brother-in-law of President Kennedy, Clifton Webb, Shirley Temple, Gary Cooper, Patricia Neal and Austin native Zachary Scott.

Left:  In the mid 50s, every Thursday was Bingo Night at the Leon.   I won $2 one night.  Bingo photo:  C.A. Brinson

   The Weeping Oak had a 150 car capacity.  The screen was initially 1,344 square feet in size but when it was expanded in April 1955 to show CinemaScope it was enlarged to 2,304 square feet (72X32).  Its first shows in CinemaScope were Vera Cruz followed by The Robe. The peak of the drive-in’s hey day in Texas was 1956 when 20% of all the drive-ins in the country were here.  With its gravel humps, speakers that sounded like a 1930s radio show, swings and see saws for the children and a free car load pass if you could win one, the Weeping Oak lived up to Texas standards until a windstorm took part of it down in the 80s.  Saturday nights had a double feature, usually with a pretty good movie to lead off and an Elvis Presley or a beach party movie for the late flick.  The hot dogs were great and the restrooms weren’t.   C.A. Brinson Jr. usually guarded the back row to keep kids from climbing over the fence from the Holland farm to get in free.  He was not always successful.

     The Lone Star Theater is believed to have been opened by J.T. Edmondson as a permanent indoor location in 1910 as the era of the slide show was replaced by silent films.  A post card mailed from De Leon to Dolly Payne (actually spelled Paine) in Comanche in Nov. of 1910 says “We have a moving picture show here but it is an old machine and isn’t any good.”

    It was noted in a 1929 Free Press article that when the opportunity to sell his theater at good profit, he took it and opened a tailor shop at the same location.  By Armistice Day November 11, 1918, he was already operating the tailor shop in the building.  (See World War I.)

    Theaters may not exactly be the correct title for this thread since De Leon had several entertainment venues that will be lumped into that category.  One of the early popular gathering spots was The Glade, an arbor/tabernacle type structure built by the Methodist among the trees on the northeast side of the “S” curve. It was a good weather gathering place for church services and entertainment.  Tent shows, medicine shows and revival often used the site as they traveled along the railroad from city to city.   The Comanche Chief noted that the renowned Major Penn brought his tent revival to De Leon in September of 1882 and was followed on October 28 by political opponents Dr. Barnett of the Greenback party and Major Davenport a Democrat who held a debate during their whistle stop.

     A large two story barn shaped building that came to be called The Ark was constructed sometime between 1900 and 1905 by Joe Berry Blackstock in the western half of the central business block that today includes Weaver Drug.  The second floor of the building was used for years as the town’s auditorium. The Comanche Chief said “De Leon today (1907) boasts one of the most commodious opera houses and public halls in West Texas.  it is a fine building 56 x 103 feet, the first floor being occupied by the Wilson-Whaley company as a ware room for their implements and their surplus stock. Patrons entered from Austin Avenue.  Wilson-Whaley displayed their buggies and caskets on the lower floor. Mrs. W.H. (Mamie) Smith recalled that she and Hiram Sr. had to decide whether or not to splurge and spend ten cents each to get into the Ark to see some show or use the money for more important things.

     At least four airdome theaters operated in De Leon at various times.  One was located on the northeast corner of Houston and Gonzales.  Another on a vacant lot directly across from the Lambert Hotel (the present location of Comanche County Tractor) and a third was called Sailor Smith’s Airdome and was said to have been at the location of the old Ford Station (possibly the southwest corner of Gonzales and Austin).  The fourth was on Reynosa at Austin behind what would later be the Ayers building.  This facility was used as a butcher shop through the week and a theater on Friday night.  It is believed that this airdome was called the Wonderland Electric Theater and was owned by J.T. Edmonds and a Mr. Stephens (probably A.I. Stephens).  The theaters were open rain or shine.  All of the theaters initially had slide shows but switched to motion pictures with the coming of silent films.

The Weeping Oak Drive In Theater

This 1951 Weeping Oak schedule was on the reverse side of the above Leon Theater schedule.

Above:  A newspaper ad probably in the Free Press.  From a clipping in which the adjacent article in the clipping is about a death in De Leon.  The death occurred in 1913.